Spring is unfortunately still nowhere in sight, teasing us with bright sunbeams and laughing in our faces when we wrap our scarves even tighter around our necks. The good thing about this transitional season is that we still fancy some proper comfort food, and we’re certainly not wrong for wanting it.
Today’s recipe is a fusion of tender cooked Spanish pulpo with “batatas ao murro,” a typically Portuguese way of preparing smashed potatoes, which are either battered with a fist or traditionally thrown against the wall so that they burst. With such an opportunity to let off steam, the term comfort food takes on a whole new meaning...
The pulpo I use for this recipe arrives pre-cooked in Berlin from Catalonia—freshly delivered once a week. Anyone who has ever tried to cook an octopus tender themselves and failed will be very glad to have this task taken off their hands. But there’s no need to feel bad about it—in Portugal, there’s an actual job for this: that of the pulpeiro, who spends the whole day doing nothing else but cooking pulpo tender.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Pulpo
- Olive oil
- Rosemary
- Salt and pepper or piment d’Espelette for color
- A green salad to accompany, if desired
Preparation:
- Die potatoes with their skins on (scrub them first) and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in a preheatedoven at 250°C for approximately a half an hour until they are cooked through. After baking, hit the potatoes with your fist or the palm of your hand so that they burst. Alternatively, of course, you can throw them against the wall...
- Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and warm the pulpo in its packaging in the water for about 15 minutes. This gentle heating method allows the pulpo to steep in its juices and prevents it from drying out.
- Arrange the potatoes on a plate, slice the pulpo and add it to the plate. Sprinkle both with salt and piment d’Espelette. Serve with a green salad if desired.
Our wine recommendation to go with it:
